I’ve been a customer of Huel for over 5 years and never had any big problems. The problems I have had have been solved extremely fastly. However with the latest subscription I am still waiting for shipping to happen and its been over 10 days and no shipment yet.
My subscription consists of 6 RTD boxes (2 berry, 2 banana, 1 vanilla and 1 chocolate) and I decided to add 2 packs of Huel Black (strawberries & cream + salted Caramel). When I made the additions the strawberries and cream was out of stock on the website but I figured that there would be some reserve for subscribers since it let me add it to my subscription. Also banana RTD was sold out at that point but it is a part of my normal subscription. Everything else was in stock though.
Now it’s been over 10 days with no shipment and no date as to when I could expect the shipment. I have asked for a partial shipment of the product as I am fine with waiting for the rest of the package for longer until you get a restock but I do not wish to cancel those products as then I would have to pay a larger price per bottle if I do that.
So some questions and hopeful improvements for the future.
Do partial shipments if you have restocking issues. I know for previous experiences that my order would have been shipped in 4 parcels anyway since 2 RTD boxes always come in one shipment. I consume 1200 kcal of Huel a day and do not want to run out. This is the reason I have a subscription and trust that my order will be delivered within the 4 business days promised on EU website. Now I am almost out of the good stuff and have to resort to other foods.
Berry was not out of stock when my subscription renewed. It has now ran out of stock while I have been waiting. This leads me to believe that 2 boxes that I ordered in my subscription where not reserved for me but sold to other customers. Shouldn’t the orders be first in first out or at least reserve the berry RTD for me since I have paid for it already?
I was already told banana RTD would be in stock as of last friday and my shipment would ship very soon after that. However now I am still waiting.
Isn’t one of the points of subscriptions so that you know how many orders approximately you are getting on a monthly basis and can reserve the product for subscribers in case there are stocking issues? This is at least my experience with how Saturo operates and I would expect others as well.
Very slow support for the modern times. Often times I have to wait over 24 hours to reach someone. I would be hopeful for a chat option to be added or some other direct contact method. Sending email back and forward seems to lead to absolutely nothing.
Hi - on the main UK site, there is a chat function as well as a CS phone number both of which operate during normal UK office hours and they are also available on the chat/messaging services of their social media platforms.
I’m in a kind of similar situation. Got the confirmation email on the 8th, but silly me assumed that if the website allowed me to add things to a subscription then it’d be in stock. I learned my lesson there, won’t be trying that in the future. I ran out of Huel this Sunday. Last Friday support told me it’d ship “soon” but no idea when that’d be.
The routine is built up was Huel for breakfast, lunch with an option for dinner. Now the new routine is sandwiches and multivitamin.
No phone contact on the EU site or at least I cannot find any. Only email or the contact form. I don’t use Facebook or other social media so that is not an option for me either and I don’t see any mention of Facebook contact channel on the support site either. If this is an option though it should be clarified.
UK site I could use if the support can be provided to EU customers from there as well. Again though this should be clarified on the contact us site.
Hi - the UK number is on the FAQ and help centre page.- 01296 678516 - the chat on the UK site appears as a small speech bubble in the lower right hand corner. you can use either even if you are in the EU.
Firstly a massive apology for the out of stock (OOS) problems, we’re working extremely hard to get all Huel back in stock.
Yes we absolutely do reserve stock for subscribers, or rather we put products OOS on site when there is still enough stock to fulfil current subscriptions. I.e. if the product is OOS when you add it to your subscription it won’ be fulfilled. There’s a possibility that there was an short interim where the product was OOS on our site but not yet in our account area, for that we are extremely sorry. I’ve no doubt that our CE will make this right for you.
If a case of Banana RTD was part of your normal subscription, i.e. you didn’t add it once it was OOS then that would be fine. The problem here is the additions of the OOS items to your order.
I’m sorry you feel this way, we have team members working over the weekend but it is much reduced. I was surprised to read this so just had a look and it seems you emailed us late on Friday night which explains the delay to your response since it was over the weekend. During working hours, response time is a few hours and we always reply on a monday to any EU email received over the weekend. I appreciate you might expect 24 hour/7 day support but we aren’t able to provide this.
I know you are in touch with our CE team now and I will let them resolve this for you. This isn’t a position we want to be in, or our loyal Hueligans to be in. We’re working hard to resolve the OOS, respond to all customers affected and keep them informed. I know the CE team will do the best they can for you.
Thanks for the reply. Reason why I decided to even make this post was the feeling that I was not getting good support from your CS team.
My normal subscription is as follows:
2x Banana RTD
2x Berry RTD
1x Vanilla RTD
1x Chocolate RTD
I added the following items to my subscription
1x Huel Black Salted Caramel
1x Huel Black Strawberries and Cream
1x Huel Shaker (the new one)
During the renewal only Banana RTD and Strawberries and Cream was out of stock on normal website.
On 4.6.2021 I got an email about a delay in my subscription delivery due to Banana RTD stock issues. So in my case Banana RTD was not reserved for me as it should have been based on your answer.
On 9.6.2021 I got an email saying Banana was back in stock and my order would be shipped ASAP. Ticket number 620147
On 11.6.2021 I got an email about another delay due to Strawberries and Cream being out of stock. I got sent a coupon for a discount in a future order. The coupon is for 100 kr even though I live in Finland and paid in Euros.
The support has failed me constantly in telling me what Huel has actually in stock reserved for me and what I would have to cancel from my order in order to get the rest of the already paid for products. Based on your response it should be that only the strawberries and cream flavor is out and rest could be shipped? If this is the case I would be happy in cancelling the individual flavor. However based on the interaction with the support I feel like there has been no banana or berry reserved for my order. Also salted caramel is now out of stock on your website so I find it very likely that this could not be shipped to me even though I made an order over 10 days ago.
Thanks for the clarification. I know that Cam from the CE team is in touch with you now about resolving this. I’m sorry for the uncertainty. We forecasted large growth for the last few months and had stock ready for this growth (and some in reserve), however the spike in demand the last month or so was unforseen, even with a generous forecast and buffer and has been further impacted by increased seafreight lead-times.